|
|
Weekly News Digest
 |
September 1, 2020 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
|
EBSCO Incorporates the NoodleTools Platform Into Search Interfaces
NoodleTools’ research management platform for easy citation exportation is now integrated into EBSCOhost, EBSCO Discovery Service, and Explora for mutual customers to use. EBSCO Information Services automatically released this addition across all EBSCO search interfaces. With NoodleTools, students can “organize their sources, build accurate citations, take notes, outline topics and prepare to write.” This integration allows them to “export MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian citations from any EBSCO search interface and save them to their [NoodleTools] accounts.”For more information, read the press release.
COVID-19 NEWS: 'AASL Offers COVID Recovery Grants'
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is offering “grants to specifically address collection loss and remote access requirements due to COVID-19 school closures. To help meet the needs of [middle and high school] school libraries making the fall return to learning, applications are due by 4:30 p.m. on September 30, 2020. Criteria, eligibility, and application requirements can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/awards/inspire/special. … Funds can be used to restore school library collections and extend online and remote resources to address learner needs. Eligible purchases include books, online subscriptions, and/or software collections, as well as accessibility extensions (hotspots, increased bandwidth, etc.).”For more information, read the press release.
Patron Point Teams With ReThinking Libraries, Offers Marketing Webinar
Patron Point joined forces with ReThinking Libraries, which provides strategic marketing planning services to libraries and is adding Patron Point to its expanding set of recommended services. The two companies recently offered a webinar, The Library Does That?: Navigating Common Marketing Challenges, whose recording can be streamed here (registration required).For more information, read the news item.
New Gale Platform Helps Library Patrons With Career Development
Gale introduced Gale Presents: Peterson’s Career Prep, “a new innovative online career assessment platform for libraries—powered by Peterson’s—that gives patrons access to career development tools. Now libraries can provide job seekers with career planning and guidance resources to explore new paths that align with their interests and skills to achieve their professional goals in today’s job market.” For instance, patrons at participating public, academic, and K–12 school libraries can use it to “receive personalized career and college recommendations, create resumes and cover letters, search for positions, explore schools and training programs and obtain advice on both finding a job or advancing an existing career.”For more information, read the press release.
Innovative's Vega Product Gets One Step Closer to Launch
Innovative now has seven participants in its Innovative Development Partner program for Vega, its new patron engagement and discovery solution for public libraries. Suffolk Cooperative Library System in New York recently came on board to join the advisory discussions, usability testing, and beta testing.“Our development partners have been very engaged so far and provide us with valuable feedback as we develop additional capabilities into Vega Discover,” says Toni Minick, Innovative’s VP of product management. “There are many moving pieces to designing new software and having development partner input on priorities, conceptual designs, and brainstorming solutions to common problems has been incredibly beneficial. It is exciting to see the transformation of their data as we bring it into the Vega platform and immediately see the benefits of the context engine.” Early Access to Vega Discover for qualified libraries will be available starting in early September. For more information, read the press release.
Amazon Unveils a New Wellness Tracker
Amazon rolled out Amazon Halo, “a new service dedicated to helping customers improve their individual health and wellness. Amazon Halo combines a suite of AI-powered health features that provide actionable insights into overall wellness via the new Amazon Halo app with the Amazon Halo Band, which uses multiple advanced sensors to provide the highly accurate information necessary to power Halo insights.” Early access is available now for U.S. users. For $64.99, they can get the band and 6 months of membership.“Health is much more than just the number of steps you take in a day or how many hours you sleep. Amazon Halo combines the latest medical science, highly accurate data via the Halo Band sensors, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence to offer a more comprehensive approach to improving your health and wellness,” says Maulik Majmudar, Amazon Halo’s principal medical officer. For more information, read the press release.
The Library Corp. Updates Its Products
The Library Corp. (TLC) announced that “TLC’s commitment to working alongside customers as development partners fuels development investments TLC continuously makes to the CARL product platform. As a result of this collaboration, CARL•X version 9.6.6, CARL•Connect Staff version 1.6.2, CARL•Connect Discovery version 3.6.1 and CARL•X APIs version 1.9.7, are now available.”CARL•Connect Discovery now has better-aligned mobile and desktop versions, as well as more functionality in mobile (such as the ability to view patron loan history). In addition, both desktop and mobile offer the ability to add general alerts and customer announcements. CARL•X has added functionality giving consortia libraries more flexibility when determining holds parameters. CARL•Connect Staff updated the way staffers can deal with fines and fees on patron accounts. For more information, read the press release.
DigiPlex Survey Reveals Digital Users' Environmental Concerns
DigiPlex conducted a survey that shows “while most Americans are unaware that their personal use of streaming services has an impact on the environment, two out of three say they are willing to consider picking a streaming service with a lower carbon footprint if given a choice.”“Every time someone streams a video, sends a text, or joins a video conference call, a data center somewhere in the world consumes power,” says Byrne Murphy, chairman of DigiPlex. “While it seems that most Americans are unaware of this link, they care about their individual impact on the environment and would be willing to take action by choosing services that help to lower it. Large data producers should take note.” DigiPlex states, “Annually, data centers are estimated to be responsible for consuming one percent of the global electricity supply—more than most countries. The entire information and communications technology ecosystem which includes personal digital devices, mobile phone networks, and televisions are responsible for two percent of global CO2 emissions—about the same as the entire global airline industry, according to the journal Nature.” For more information and more survey results, read the press release.
Scribd Buys SlideShare
Marydee Ojala reports the following for Information Today Europe:Scribd announced on 3 August 2020 that it had agreed to purchase SlideShare from LinkedIn. The price of the acquisition was not made public. Scribd will take over the operation of the SlideShare business on 24 September 2020. That’s when Scribd will take over the management of SlideShare accounts plus any content people have on SlideShare. Scribd’s privacy policy and general terms of service will then come into force. Those who wish to opt out must close their SlideShare account. The URL for SlideShare will remain the same. For more information, read the news item.
American Society for Cell Biology Invests in New OA Model
The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is using a new library subscription model, Subscribe to Open (S2O), for its peer-reviewed basic research journal Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC). S2O will give readers open access to the journal in 2021 while keeping author costs low, because it will still bring in subscription revenue.According to ASCB, “Here’s how S2O works: existing institutional subscribers will receive a 5% discount off of the regular subscription price if they agree to participate. If all existing subscribers agree to participate in S2O by early 2021, the journal’s content will become completely open access for that year. If the plan is successful for 2021, the offer will be repeated annually. S2O has been successfully implemented by other publications, but MBoC is the first research journal to experiment with the model.” For more information, read the news item.
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
|
